The 2nd Bielański Passion Music Festival is a unique encounter with ancient and contemporary interpretations of Lenten songs. During this year's edition, we will hear traditional works from various regions of Poland, as well as musical arrangements of poetry by Jan Kochanowski or Mikołaj Sępa-Szarzyński. Outstanding artists will perform, taking us on a journey through the Passion tradition, from Kurpie songs to a recital inspired by the Book of Job.

PROGRAMME
6 April 2024 (Sunday) at 7 pm
Venue of the concert: Pentecost Parish Church 44 Broniewskiego St.

Gracious Creator
Maria Pomianowska Trio

Lent is a time of penance in preparation for experiencing the greatest feast of Christians, Easter. In the first centuries, Lent included only Good Friday and Holy Saturday. By the fifth century it lasted a week, and later, in remembrance of Jesus' forty-day fast in the desert and the forty years of wandering of the Israelites after the flight from Egypt, it was extended to forty days.
During Lent it is not appropriate to play lively polkas and mazurkas. If only sad dumkas, nocturnes and passion songs were to be sung. It was sometimes the case that during the fasting period children hid their toys, leaving the most damaged ones behind, and instead of fairy tales, children were read the lives of saints. Prof. Maria Pomianowska, a researcher and expert on folk and traditional culture, found the earliest songs associated with Lent. The songs, which were sung in the old days in enclaves far away from the main human centres, have thus retained their fresh originality. We can now, in an age of technological revolutions, return to the roots of our culture and move, together with the musicians of her ensemble, to very archaic times and recall the songs, formerly handed down only in oral tradition, sung in the Polish lands during Lent.

The instruments accompanying the songs are unusual: old Polish reconstructed lap fidels - the Płock fiddle, the Biłgoraj suka, the mielecka suka and the wspak The Płock fiddle is an old Polish string instrument from archaeological excavations. The original was found in 1985 during work carried out in Płock. The origin of the layer containing the instrument was determined to be the mid-16th century. It is the only surviving specimen of a 16th-century Polish folk stringed instrument.

The Biłgoraj suka is a lost Old Polish stringed instrument, reconstructed on the basis of iconographic sources, as no original has survived. These included press references from the late 19th century and a watercolour painted by Wojciech Gerson (1895). The mielecka was reconstructed on the basis of a watercolour by Stanisław Putiatycki. It already shows more features of violinisation than the two previously mentioned instruments. Together with Andrzej Kuczkowski and Ewa Dahlig, Maria Pomianowska reconstructed three forgotten instruments. She has reworked a forgotten performance practice, creating an original playing technique, performance style and repertoire. The ensemble of reconstructed knee fidels consists of instruments in different registers, from soprano to bass. It is enriched by the wspak, or fiddle, which belongs to the so-called new tradition. The instrument was created by Andrzej Król, a contemporary sculptor from Warsaw. Its sound falls within the cello register, but has a very distinctive ethnic timbre.

Maria Pomianowska- vocal, fiddle of Płock, Biłgorajska suka, mielecka suka, elaborated.
works, artistic direction
Aleksandra Kauf- Tyrał - singing, Płock fiddle, Biłgoraj bitch, backwards
Anna Klimczyk-singing, Płock fiddle, Biłgoraj bitch, backwards

The trio is a unique formation made up of young talented female artists and their professor. In the trio you will hear a student (Anna Klimczyk) and a graduate (Aleksandra Kauf). The artists have been working together since 2016 giving concerts in Asia (China, Japan, Vietnam, Korea etc) Africa (South Africa, Egypt, Tunisia etc) and America. ( USA, Canada). Their repertoire includes, among others, folk music programmes, programmes combining classical music with folk music ( F.Chopin, S.Moniuszko, W.Lutosławski, K.Szymanowski), dances and melodies from 16th and 17th century organ and lute tablatures, compositions by Piotr from Grudziądz, Mikołaj from Radom, Maria Pomianowska's own compositions for such an unusual composition, and programmes with Polish-Asian and Polish-African music.

Maria Pomianowska
Doctor of Musical Arts professor, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, composer and pedagogue. Professor at the Academy of Music in Kraków and director of the international Cross-Culture Festival. 27 years ago, together with Ewa Dahlig and Andrzej Kuczkowski, she reconstructed lost old Polish string instruments: the Biłgoraj suka, Płock fiddle and Mielec suka. In 2010, she opened Poland's first specialisation in ethnic music, 'Knee Fiddle', at the Faculty of Instrumental Music (Chair of Cello and Double Bass) of the Academy of Music in Kraków. These are first and second degree studies. The artist has released 29 original albums, many of which have received Polish and international awards (including World Music Charts Europe, Songlines magazine). For 30 years she has been giving concerts as a soloist all over the world, in the best concert halls. ( among others: Royal Albert hall (London), Kennedy Center (Washington DC), Lincoln Center (New York), Izumi hall (Osaka), Mozart hall (Tokyo), Kiara hall(Sapporo). She has created works and performed with world-renowned artists including: Yo Yo Mą, Janusz Olejniczak, Gil Goldstein, Gonzalo Rubelcaba, Branford Marsalis, Kayhan Kalhor, Hoosein Alizadeh. From 1997 to 2002, as Polish ambassador to Japan, she befriended the entire imperial family by giving concerts and composing music for Her Majesty the Empress Michiko.
Since 2011, he has been creating unique programmes, together with Arab, Pakistani, Senegalese, Iranian, Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Indian musicians in Asia and Africa, based on folk music from Mazowsze. Cooperation established by the Academy of Music in Krakow with the Normal University in Qanzhou
(China) enables the artist, through annual projects with Chinese students, to promote Polish music on a large scale. In 2014, together with Ewa Dahlig, she published a publication entitled 'Knee Fidele. (Re)construction'. In 2020, she published the first ever textbook on reconstructed Old Polish string instruments. She composes music for plays and films.